In Cinemas: 127 Hours

With a split screen sped-up montage of people racing around a city (as one set of time lapsed images is clearly not frenetic enough), 127 Hours certainly begins with a shot of adrenalin to the arm.

And it continues this way for the first fifteen or so minutes, with the portrayal of real-life adventurer Aron Ralston risking every last bit of himself by ducking and diving through the canyons of Utah. And then he gets trapped in a large crack – his arm wedged into the side of the crack by a rather nasty rock. And this is how the next hour or so of the film continues. And, inevitably, it does feel like the 127 hours Aron spent trapped is showing in real time.

But to say Danny Boyle's new movie is boring is unfair. His lead man, James Franco, certainly helps. As Ralston, Franco is incredibly likeable even when he is being stunningly obnoxious to family and acquaintances in the film's opening act. We want Ralston to escape from his plight, and we feel that every little misfortune that besets the beardy hero in the desert is high drama.

Boyle's direction, aptly enough, fills in the other cracks. From extreme close up to expansive wide shot, fantasy sequence to bleary-eyed half-remembered flashback, Boyle keeps up the pace and dramatic tension. The story's memorable and well-known turning point, where Aron Ralston finds a way to escape, is hinted at throughout before finally happening. Boyle knows how to get his audience eating from the palm of his hand, and his little manipulations and tricks are entirely forgivable for the verve he employs to pull them off. When the scene finally hits, it's both electric and eye-watering.

Like Slumdog Millionaire, the film's emotional tug of a conclusion is perhaps an inevitably of the film's story rather than down to Boyle's skill. The end also Boyle riding on the wave of catharsis for a little too long to truly tingle any spines. And although inevitably there are longeurs (it's hard to think of a filmmaker in the world who could make a mainstream movie about this subject and not have it drag in places), Boyle has done an exceptionally impressive job of bringing a difficult story to film – and, rarely, an experience which is essential to see on the big screen.